Favourite Leading Light wins sixth Ascot Gold Cup for Aidan O’Brien

Leading Light, right, holds off the Queen's Estimate in a thrilling finish to the Ascot Gold Cup on Thursday. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Aidan O’Brien spoke of the courage a horse requires to win a Gold Cup after sending out Leading Light to record a narrow defeat of the Queen’s mare Estimate here on Thursday, but sometimes it takes a clever, confident jockey to draw it out. Joseph O’Brien, who was 21 last month, visibly came of age in this year’s Gold Cup, finding a clear path to the post and reacting instantly when Leading Light started to wander with half a furlong to run. As brave as Leading Light was in the drive for the line, O’Brien made the difference in the saddle.

Leading Light’s dam was a five-furlong winner at this meeting, and though he stayed well to win the St Leger last September, he headed into the unknown in terms of his stamina with half a mile still to run. O’Brien was niggling at his partner before the home turn, but still reacted quickly to hold his ground as Estimate came alongside him in the straight. That forced Ryan Moore, on Estimate, to switch inside and go for a gap between Missunited and the weakening Brown Panther, while Leading Light maintained the momentum of his run on the outside.

O’Brien also responded immediately when his mount started to drift left within sight of the line, straightening Leading Light before driving him home by a neck from Estimate, with Missunited a short-head away in third. Moore said afterwards that he felt Estimate’s performance was better than the one which secured her the prize 12 months ago, underlining the merit of Leading Light’s success.

“When you have a tough horse on your side, it’s easier,” Joseph O’Brien said. “Ryan was looking for a bit of room, as he was well entitled to, and I was well entitled to keep the room that I had. When I got to the front my horse had a little look and he just wandered a little bit left, probably because he was getting tired.

“He is as tough as nails, but I think his optimum trip is probably a mile and three-quarters to two miles. At that trip he would have a bit more zip at the end, but he’s tough and he keeps pulling it out.”

O’Brien has now won his second Derby – on Australia – and his first Gold Cup in the space of 12 days, and looks more assured and dependable with every major success. His father, meanwhile, has now saddled more Gold Cup winners than any trainer in history, moving to six with this victory and out of a tie with, among others, Sir Henry Cecil and two great names of the distant past, John Porter and Alec Taylor.

“Two-and-a-half miles around here really tests a horse’s courage and it takes a very brave horse to win it,” O’Brien, who watched the race near the statue of his four-time winner Yeats, said afterwards. “A lot of stuff can happen but until you turn in and you face that last three furlongs after the full two miles before it, that’s when courage has to kick in.

“We always hoped that he would [stay the trip]. We’ve had some horses running a little bit ordinary this week, but this horse had taken a lot of work and taken it well, which is usually a good sign. I don’t think the last three furlongs have seemed as long in a race for a long time, it was so nip and tuck. There were so many horses that could have gone by him.”

The jockey suffered a serious setback when the stewards banned him for seven days for overuse of the whip, adding a further two days for a second offence in the last race. Barring an appeal, he will miss the Eclipse in two weeks’ time for which his stable has several strong contenders.

Estimate, who was the Queen’s first winner in the meeting’s showpiece event last year, put up an excellent performance on her seasonal debut, but seems unlikely to return for a third run in the great race in 2015.

“You couldn’t ask for more,” John Warren, the Queen’s racing manager, said. “Coming into today we thought we were going to get a pasting by horses with class and improving stayers. We thought perhaps she would run third and run a gallant race but to give the winner such a run for his money, Ryan said it was a career best. She’s going to be a lovely broodmare and it gave everyone a real thrill. There’s no reason not to run her again [this season], but she won’t run on soft ground or heavy ground like she had to last autumn.”

Leading Light’s win gave the O’Briens a double on the day after the victory of Bracelet, at 10-1, in the Group Two Ribblesdale Stakes. Ballydoyle also saw The Great War, at 5-6, finish out of the frame behind Baitha Alga in the opening Norfolk Stakes, but overall this was another bad day for the bookmakers. Leading Light’s victory meant that three of the four odds-on chances in Group One events this week have come home in front. This Royal Ascot is one which many punters will remember fondly.